[Fair use for education and research purpose only]

Title: Fault in electrical generator blamed for aborted flights Source: Journal of Commerce Publication date: 2000-05-10

Qantas Airways Ltd., Australia's largest carrier, said a minor electrical fault caused a flight from Hong Kong to Sydney to be aborted twice over the weekend.

The Boeing 747-400 involved was the same plane that overshot the runway during a landing at Bangkok airport on Sept. 23. Qantas said the two incidents were unrelated.The plane turned around about an hour after takeoff from Hong Kong on Saturday night after the crew discovered a malfunction in an electrical generator.

The flight was rescheduled for Sunday morning after engineers examined the plane in Hong Kong and declared it safe.

But the flight was canceled a second time after the same problem was detected during preparations for takeoff.The passengers returned to Sydney on Monday morning aboard a different plane.

David Forsyth, Qantas' aircraft operations manager, said the incident was not serious, despite it occurring so soon after the company spent $A96 million (US$57 million) refitting the jumbo jet after the Bangkok incident.

"Airlines around the world have these sorts of defects which occur pretty regularly," Forsyth told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

"This length of delay and having to overnight people at a hotel is not all that common . . . but it's certainly not what we classify as an accidentor incident," he said.

http://realcities.yellowbrix.com/pages/realcities/Story.nsp?story_id=10425428&site=charlotte&ID=realcities&scategory=Aviation

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), May 10, 2000